DisTressed
by Melanippos
Summary: Rin is found gore spattered and alone, Sesshoumaru doesn't appear able to return and Kagome makes a strange new... friend. Romance may or may not take a part in future. The garnering of respect, however, will.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I do hereby disclaim all rights and responsibilities for the characters in this story. Rumiko Takahashi created them, I am just having a brief, merciless play with them. Unless I happen to invent and insert my own characters. In which case I still won't make money off them.

**Author's Note:** I am NOT a writer, I am an illustrator and that is where I am most happy. I make no promises nor give false . This is my first fanfic, there is another I am writing simultaneous. As to whether they survive long enough to give a real plot or happiness to readers remains to be seen._ Isshin na teleth _Or so it would seem.

~Chapter 1~

Kagome had been heading for the stream for water. Had been. She now stood distracted on the edge of a new glade, torn recently from the closed forest that surrounded it. The debris blocked her view in parts but she knew that the damage had been done recently. The last time they had camped near here, surely less than a month ago, the forest had been impenetrable.

The new glade consisted of churned ground and the remains of claw marked tree trunks, the sparse undergrowth torn up by some fierce battle. That the sap from the shattered trunks was dry and most of the leaves well-withered indicated the event was several days passed but Kagome still began to back away.

There was a tremor through the foliage of a bush near her and Kagome jumped like a hare.

Half hidden beneath the leaves, curled up and trembling was a tattered orange and yellow checked kimono. The garment was gore spattered, dry crusted patches stiffened the fabric in place.

Rin.

Alarmed Kagome crouched down wrestled the child out from under the bush. The child's clothing was in a fetid state, the blood flaked off the fabric as it moved and her face was speckled with the brown of dried blood and dirt. Kagome urgently ran her hands over the child's head, searching for signs of injury beneath Rin's thick hair, over her limbs and torso.

"Are you hurt anywhere Sweetie?"

The child shook her head but continued sobbing, eyes shut tightly, though her hands now clutched at Kagome's skirts

The older girl pushed up the child's sleeve where the blood was especially thick. The skin was unbroken but a series of livid bruises were developing in the shape of finger marks - so distinctly shaped for Kagome to see it had been a left hand. The blood had only seeped through the outer layer of the kimono Rin wore, inside was still, in terms of blood, clean.

"Rin-chan?" Kagome gave the child a gentle shake, trying to rouse her from catatonic state. "Can you tell me what happened?"

The child whimpered. Then vomited, briefly and very little.

Kagome rubbed the child's back, painfully aware of the girl's bones through the cloth. Using the corner of her cardigan she wiped the child's mouth before gathering her into her arms as best she could and striking out for where the others were camped – the kettle left behind, forgotten.

~o0o~

Endnote:

I have no beta reader. Please let me know of any errors, inconsistancies and whatnot. I will quite possibly come back and add/change bits as they become relevant in future.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** I do hereby disclaim all rights and responsibilities for the characters in this story. Rumiko Takahashi created them.

~Chapter 2~

"I'm sure Sesshoumaru-dono will come and find you soon.." Kagome offered lamely.

The child continued staring into the fire, hunched under the fuzzy blanket Kagome had wrapped her in earlier in the evening.

The mood remained somber. The degree of shock exhibited by the child and the apparently forced absence of a taiyoukai with her guardian's strength left all of the party feeling uneasy.

Shippo was doubly distressed for when Kagome had brought the child back to camp Rin had flinched from his presence

Inuyasha had begun to bluster when she had first returned. Then he had caught Kagome's expression and actually Looked at the child. He had shut his trap abruptly and stormed off to look for food and, ostensibly, his half brother.

Rin's eyes remained wide and unseeing, she did not respond to any questions, though Sango had managed to coax the child to drink some of the meat broth made by from their left over supper.

The expression on Inuyasha's face, when he returned, indicated that he'd found the glade, but had no news, good or otherwise, of her guardian.

Wordlessly it was agreed not to bring the matter up in the child's hearing. Though the evening was mild and Kagome had draped yet another blanket over Rin's shoulders the child still shivered occasionally.

Late in the evening the adults gathered closer, away from the fire.

"There was no sign of the Bastard outside that glade. His stink is all through the place but it stops at the tree line. Then there's nuff'n"

"What do we do about Rin?"

"Not much we can do"

"We could have another look in Daylight…"

"You don't trust my nose?"

"I didn't say that…"

~o0o~

Kagome woke from a fitful sleep. The moon was high and the fire had died back to mere embers. Clouds cast trailing shadows over the ground and all seemed at peace.

She glanced across their campsite. All was as it always was, everyone in their usual place… but her sleep fuzzed mind insisted something was missing.

Kagome's eyes flickered over the empty blanket crumpled a little too close to the fire….

Rin was no longer in sight...

~o0o~

'How did she learn to move so quietly?!' Kagome thought as she threshed through the undergrowth, glad she now slept in practical clothes. Changing to and from pajamas was a habit the necessity for readiness had broken over a year ago now.

The amount of sound she was making as she hastened after the pale figure of Rin had surely woken the rest of the party.

The irony of her not waking the others but going straight after Rin on her own so as to not startle the child into flight was certainly not lost on Kagome now as she stumbled loudly through another thicket.

Finally she caught up with the child and was relieved to see the blankness had vanished from the girl's eyes. Now they were fixed ahead and Rin was walking with grim purpose.

Kagome jogged forward to stand in front of the child.

"Rin-chan. Sweetie – you shouldn't wander off. It's not safe…"

Rin looked at the older girl squarely, her young face determined.

"Rin must find Sesshoumaru-sama this time Kagome-nee-san. Jaken-sama and Ah-Un too.."

Kagome's mouth opened and closed a few times and she glanced back in the direction of the campsite where support and security of numbers remained.

When she turned back she found the child had silently side stepped her and continued on without her. Surprised by the unexpected stubborn streak from a child who had always seemed so malleable and eager to please Kagome could only chase after Rin, flapping her hands impotently.

"Rin-chan – if we go back the others will help you find for Sesshoumaru-Dono and keep you safe too…"

Rin's silence and steady tread answered that compromise with a disregard surely learned from her guardian. Kagome wilted and followed.

She briefly contemplated carrying the child back the way they'd come but quickly dismissed it. Rin was larger than Shippo and she sensed the child would not abandon her task easily. They were some distance from the camp now… in fact Kagome wasn't entirely sure she knew the way back, even with the moon as bright as it was.

And then they were back at the clearing where Kagome had found Rin. Luminescent fungi had sprouted on the fallen trunks where decay had set in, casting an eerie glow into the shadowy areas around the edges of the clearing. Kagome shuddered and hastened to follow Rin out into the open, where she had not dared step earlier in the day.

The ground was churned, torn and bloody, even in the monochromatic light. Acid bitten rocks slumped amidst charred fern tussocks.

The moonlight caught and glittered on fine strands of hair scattered in tufts across a part of the battle field. Blood was liberally splashed over the place.

A fragment of yellow sash was trampled into the mire and a lone boot lay nearby. Kagome suddenly felt very queasy and her imagination, somewhat hysterically, conjured an image of an irate Sesshoumaru glaring down at his bootless foot.

Kagome shook herself, slapped her cheeks and looked around for Rin. The child was carefully collecting the scattered locks of hair and, with one last nervous glance at the boot, Kagome stooped and began to help.

The silky locks still hummed with youki and seemed to writhe resentfully beneath her fingers as her own reiki rebuffed it.

Rin's own handful hung inert until she passed it to Kagome – the hair trembled beneath their collective grasp as it was transferred.

Kagome shivered. It was like holding a snake – one made of cool moonlight. Rin's touch had calmed her own handful of hair and it now coiled wearily over her wrist as if that last burst of youki in response to her touch had exhausted it. Self-consciously she smoothed it with a finger.

"Kagome-sama"

A tug at her skirt brought her attention back to the child. Whilst Kagome had stood distracted by the thick locks of Sesshoumaru's hair Rin had been searched the ground, pointedly avoiding the most bloodied areas of the glade and now she had returned with a stout, straight stick.

"Kagome-sama. Could you tie it for me? Sesshoumaru-sama's hair, to this."

Kagome stood non-plus with her hands full of hair. The silvery tresses had begun to writhe again slightly in her hands as Rin presented the stick towards her.

Awkwardly Kagome tried to knot the silken thread around the branch. They slid contemptuously from her attempt. No wonder Sesshoumaru's hair never tangled…

"No. no. Kagome-sama – like this: " Rin sketched a figure of eight twice in the air with her free hand.

Over, under, around. Doubling over itself in a silky skein , the ornate knot held in place now and Kagome brushed her hands, glad to be rid of the strangely live hair.

Rin turned holding the stick carefully in front of her like a dowsing rod. Squaring her shoulders she stood in the middle of the glade and tossed the stick as high as she could in the air, chanting a string of syllables as she did so.

The falling stick slowed, then stopped just above the ground, turning like a compass to point East, out of the glade.

"Sesshoumaru-sama is this way." Rin picked up the stick as Kagome struggled to stop gaping.

"How did you learn that Rin-chan?"

Rin shrugged as though the ability to cast spells were commonplace. Perhaps they were for her. "Jaken-sama does it sometimes to follow Sesshoumaru-sama He only has a few hairs though… and Rin is not allowed to touch them." The child proffered the branch to Kagome. "Will you hold if for me please Kagome-sama?"

Tentatively Kagome took the branch, the tightly knotted hair relaxed and slid to loop over her wrist again, like a pet snake. But with the acceptance of the branch came a strong tug of direction.

_That way._

A pull from her core towards the direction the stick had indicated.

Kagome glanced at the younger girl – searching for some sign of guile – had Rin knowingly asked the miko to hold the stick? It didn't seem so. Rin grasped the miko's hand and tugged.

"Please Kagome-sama…"

Casting a look back in the direction they had come Kagome let out an exasperated sigh.

Inuyasha and the others would find her soon enough. Its not like she hadn't left a blatant path of broken vegetation behind her… and some how she felt Sesshoumaru couldn't be too far away...


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer : **All characters belong to their creators. No money has exchanged hands, well not in my direction at least.

**Authors Note:** I was absolutely working on my degree - then a little lock of white hair twisted my arm behind my back and forced me to type this. The next part is half written. I just want to get on with some Uni work so will leave it at this for today. I have no real idea where this story is going but it'll be exploring something quite different from the usual I think...

Chapter 3

Kagome sat by the sleeping child in the lee of a small abandoned and tumble-down shrine and sighed tiredly looking at the dark sky. The moon had set a short while ago and there was still no sign of Inuyasha and the other members of her party. Surely someone should have realised they weren't back yet. Any moment now...

Rin had set their pace out of the glade and for the rest of the evening, her intent short legged trot had seemed tireless and ground eating. Always Eastwards. In areas where the trees obscured the moon's light the loop of hair on Kagome's wrist had glowed with a sickly pale incandescence that cast enough light for them to be certain of their footing but nothing more.

When the moon sank so too had Rin, stumbling with fatigue. Kagome had given the girl a shuffling piggyback onwards back out of the trees and onto a disused road where, fortune being an unlikely friend, she had found the remains of the shrine where they now rested.

_I should have turned around and carried her back to camp,_ Kagome thought.  
Though where "back" was now was anyone's guess. The only direction they had was forward. Hopefully towards Sesshoumaru.

Kagome looked over at the weather smoothed Bodhisattsva that shared their shelter. His red bib, colour lost in the predawn light was time faded and worn to a threadbare near-white by past weather.

"You and Me both could do with a few riceball offerings ne O-Jizo-san."

The stone statue continued to look benignly out onto the road. The small pile of stones at his feet cluttered with leaves and dust. Kagome leaned across and blew the litter off, feeling, as she did the coil of hair around her wrist loosen and softly slump down onto the back of her hand.

Early in the night Kagome had wound the cut hair around her wrist over itself multiple times like a thick bangle, securing it with her one hair tie stretched diagonally over it. Apart from the occasional bout of tired glowing when they encountered deep shadows the locks of hair had shown little sign of 'life' since Rin had cast her spell.

Kagome poked it thoughtfully and then, pulling away the hairband, unwound the long strands from her wrist and straightened them over her lap. As she did so there was a slight tremble and a shimmer of youki gleamed along the length of the bedraggled locks. A faint scent of ozone and acid rose from her lap. Kagome ran a finger over the ragged lengths of hair.

There was no way she was going to be able to sleep. Instead she tidied and turned the hairs, evening all the cut ends together at one end. Using the hairtie she bound it into a ponytail, combing the hair tidily into a single long lock with her fingers. Beside her Rin stirred and mumbled uneasily in her sleep. Kagome wriggled over a little to rest her hip against the child, to let her know, through touch, that she wasn't alone.

This done, almost absently, Kagome clamped the bound end taut with her knees and began to plait the length of the hair. Humming as she did a lullaby for Rin. As Kagome worked her way down the braid, smoothing individual short and rough hairs into the middle of the plait, her hum became a silly little invent-as-you-go song, of the sort her mother had sung to Sota and herself when they were fractious, overtired and very young. Rin snuggled closer, sighed and stilled. In her hands the braid seemed to absorb the moonlight and appeared to regain lustre.

When Kagome neared the bottom of the braid she slowed in her work realising she'd no more hair-ties. Casting about for a cord she realised that the red ribbon from her old sailor top was still at her throat. A foolish anachronism but one she'd still not had the heart to give up. As it was too large a ribbon to simply secure the end of the plait Kagome braided it into the hair securing it at the end. In her hands Sesshoumaru's lost hair now lay like a fat glossy snake with a small bow on it's tail.

Despite herself she smiled and ran a finger over the soft lumps of the braid. The hair suddenly shuddered and reared up. Kagome would have dropped it altogether had the braid not already weakly coiled around her wrist again like arthritic albino python. The instinct to fling the unnatural thing away from her was checked by the realisation that the plait was shivering. A tiny, desperate tremble as it wound around her forearm, over her pulse, as though seeking warmth and comfort. The smell of acid had faded altogether though that of ozone remained, though faint, and joined by something like Hinoki - Japanese cypress.

Kagome cautiously brushed her free hand against the braid of hair and was startled by it's... Kagome could think of no other word for it's action... the braid end _nuzzled_ at her palm. Faceless, mouthless, soundlessly it pressed against her hand, the scent of hinoki becoming richer.

Tentatively and wary of consequence, lower lip held between her teeth, Kagome concentrated and mentally trickled some reiki onto the palm of her free hand, the hand the hair-snake was pressed against.

It seemed to bristle slightly, made a small jerk like a hicccup and then hesitantly, like a kitten suckling from a milk soaked rag, she could feel the bundle of hair cautiously absorb the energy from her palm. The smell of hinoki faded and was replaced with something closer to salt. Like the taste of sea-foam or the steam from miso soup. A small contented, happy smell.

Kagome stared at her hand and watched in bemused consternation. After a few minutes the plait stopped... well was it nursing?... on her reiki.  
Somehow it made an actual soft satisfied noise and then turned away from her palm to twist over and under itself around her wrist like a python on a branch, anchored by it's beribboned 'tail'. Kagome cautiously turned her hand two and fro, looking at the thing on her wrist. There was no malice coming from it at all. It seemed totally content It somehow seemed slightly fatter - like a baby animal full of milk. There was a soft vibration against her wrist and the braid moved slightly, tightened around her wrist, as a sleeping dog would grumble as it shifted in it's sleep.

Hunching in and tucking both her braid wrapped arm and the other in close Kagome found herself dozing off. The bundle of hair seemed to emit an additional warmth that helped her drift into sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer : **See prior chapters until I think of a clever thing to say here.

**Authors Note:** This is short and I'm sure I'll rework it further - but I wanted to update and assure that I'm still alive, just often busy with Life.

Chapter 4

Kagome woke from sleep with a sudden jolt. Rin was gone from beside her!

She started to jump to her feet and cracked her skull on the stone top of the shrine. During the night the braid of Sesshoumaru's hair had migrated up from the arm resting in her lap to drape loosely around her neck. At Kagome's jerking movements the hair begin to slide from her shoulder and it tightened around her neck, snakelike, to prevent from falling.

Panic flashing in Kagome's eyes and her hands flew to her throat, scrabbling instinctively at the threat of being choked. The braid tightened fractionally and resisted her attempts to tug it free but went no further than being *very* snug.

At this point Rin came rustling back through the undergrowth, holding the bagging front of the jumper she wore up like a skirt to carry something. Kagome, realising her unusual scarf wasn't tightening any further gave up on trying to remove it.  
"Kagome-san! I found us some breakfast and… oh! You tidied Sesshoumaru's hair. The ribbon is very pretty!" The child held up her findings for Kagome's approval.

"I found us lots of food - bamboo shoots, mushrooms and even fruit!"

Kagome rose again, dusting off her rump and picking the two largest and juiciest pieces from Rin's collection she placed them before the Jizo and on the stone alter of the shrine. Clapping and bowing to them both Kagome twinkled "For sharing their protection all last night," to Rin.

She then took a piece of bamboo shoot for herself saying "Itadakimasu" in a sing-song voice and sat again, patting the stone she sat of for Rin to sit beside her.

Rin cocked her head bemused. "What does that mean Kagome-san?"

"Itadakimasu?" Kagome looked at Rin surprised. The rote phrase was something she had always taken as a given necessity before a meal. She then remembered that the child was not only a feudal era orphan but also that she had recently been under the care of a non-human and could hardly be expected to know the niceties of society.

"It means thank you," Kagome explained. "Thankyou to the plants for growing and the people who pick them. To whoever made the meal and prepared it and served it too. It's a thank you to everyone who was involved in what you are lucky to have. And, my Mama says, a thank you for the company of people sharing the food with you."

Rin laughed delightedly, smacking her hands together with loud enthusiasm and practically shouting her own "Itadakimasu!" at Kagome, the jizo and the forest.

As they picked and nibbled through the small foodstuffs the braid on Kagome's shoulder loosened and inched down her arm to investigate what she held in her hand. It happened to be a mushroom. The hair recoiled uninterested, doing the same when offered a small bit of bamboo and a piece of fruit. Rin was enchanted by it and kept trying to find other things to offer it. A flower, a leaf of clover, a acorn and a pebble. The hair remained unimpressed. The mournful scent of hinoki arose again and Kagome found herself smiling at the recognition of the odour.

"I think it's hungry."

"Eh? But it had no mouth. What can it eat?"

"I think… watch" Kagome called up reiki in her free hand, enough that pink flickered around her fingertips in candy coloured flames. The white braid reared up on the opposing wrist and the smell of Hinoki became so strong that Rin sneezed violently. The child giggled and covered her nose with her steepled fingers.

"I think it eats energy," Kagome said, offering her fiery palm to the braid. Her words were demonstrated by the way the flames seemed to suck into then end of the hair as it eagerly bumped against her hand.  
The flames flickered and vanished, leaving Kagome's palm cold and her fingers tingling from the speed with which her reiki had been drawn out. The smell of cypress faded rapidly and was replaced with that of miso soup again. Rin snuffed enthusiastically. Kagome smiled at her and the braid made a little hiccup noise and dropped away, moving sluggishly back to coil around her neck. It gave a little shiver and then seemed to stretched before resettling itself.

"May Rin hold Sesshoumaru's hair?" The child asked, brushing her hands clean on the sleeves of the jumper she wore

"I don't see why not… if it'll let me unwind it," Kagome said as she attempted, for the second time that morning to remove Sesshoumaru's obstinate hair from her throat.

This time it allowed itself to be drawn away from her neck, draping loosely in her hands. In fact there seemed to be rather more of it than there had been the night before. Kagome looped the hair into Rin's waiting hands scrutinising the glossy white metre or so of lengths of hair that Rin had collected the previous night had, naturally, shortened when Kagome had braided it down to something just short of the length of her arm. However overnight the braid had doubled in length. It was also gaining thickness.

Before their eyes a ripple ran from hairband to ribbon and the braid… fattened. It had been some two inches in diameter the previous day. Now the braid was almost thicker than her wrist. Kagome was staring blankly at the braid wondering if it would stop growing and how big it would get when Rin brought her out of her contemplations.

"You should call her "Himegami-chan*" Rin piped running her fingers over the soft white hairs.

Kagome looked down at the braid wryly and poked the ribboned 'tail' with a finger. "I think since Sesshoumaru-sama is a boy his hair probably is a boy too Rin. Probably… How about… Itoko-kun*. It's almost an Otoko after all."

This delighted Rin, the newly named Itoko didn't respond more than to coil it's beribboned 'tail' lazily but firmly around Kagome's wrist. Rin, evidently, was allowed to play with it but it intended to return to Kagome.

As it was they only sat long enough to finish eating before Rin resolutely bundled Itoko back into Kagome's hands stating that it was more than time that they leave and find Sesshoumaru.

Resignedly Kagome looped Itoko-kun around her neck and followed after Rin's determined trot.

~o0o~

*Hime Gami 姫髪 is "Princess hair". -chan, as most of you know is a female diminutive name suffix.  
*Ito-ko 糸子 uses the kanji for thread and child and is one letter off Otoko 男- meaning "boy". However -ko ending names in this day and age generally indicate a girls name. It's a plait of hair and so hasn't any real gender so I figure...  
and kun is a diminutive male name suffix for those that haven't watched much japanese media yet.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer : **All characters belong to their creators. One day I shall get around to drawing Itoko.

**Authors Note:** It's taken me a while to get back to this, a lot and not very much happen all at the same time.

Chapter 5

Safely back on solid ground Kagome allowed herself to sink to the ground.  
She set her back to the boulder that had helped Ito haul her back up the slope. Rin still stood, pale faced, holding the majority of Itoko in her arms, her eyes wide and fixed on the crimson rivulets that were now dripping from Kagome's left elbow. Itoko remained firmly bound around Kagome's right wrist unwilling to let her go again.  
For a moment she closed her eyes and breathed a gratitude for her strange little group's safety.

~o0o~

The direction sense that had been cast by Rin's spell had directed their steps Eastward. They had been picking their way through a boulder strewn slope, following a goat track that showed signs of recent use and the ground had become increasingly steep. For some way, where the path was little more than a ledge along a sharp slope they went in single file, Kagome insisting that Rin hold one end of Itoko as a safety rope. The path had begun to widen and Kagome was about to offer to take the full weight of the braid again when the ground crumbled aay beneath her feet, leaving her with no purchase and no where to go but down.

Itoko, equally startled, was pulled free by Rin's grip on it's beribboned end. The child would have followed Kagome, as the path continued to crumble, had the hair not snapped out, wedging it's broader end in a cleft between two boulders. As Itoko did so it looped it's 'tail' fully around Rin's torso, heaving her backward onto her rump and sound earth.

Kagome slid only a short way down the skree but had the misfortune of richochetting off a sharp edged boulder before managing to get her feet properly under her and halt her fall.

Behind her, up the slope, a dark trail of freshly disturbed earth marked her passage. As Kagome looked up to reassure Rin of her safety she saw the silver, snakey form of Itoko writhing down the slope, red ribbon questing for her awkwardly. He stretched thinner and thinner, trying to reach until his thickness was barely that of her thumb. Far above she could make out Rin's pale face watching over the edge.

"Well lets not do that again shall we?!" Kagome laughed up at Rin, her voice trembling slightly, trying to play down her fright. "I'll be up in a moment Rin-chan. Stay back from the edge. OK?"

Rin's "Un!" of agreement was barely audible but the face disappeared from sight.

Kagome briefly inspected herself for injury. Though grazed about on her exposed skin the worst she had sustained was a shallow but long cut to her forearm. It gaped at her pinkly then began to seep blood. Her sleeve, already partially torn from the fall, she tugged off, breaking the last of the stitches, and pressed it to the cut, wishing the fabric were cleaner. Itoko had finally gotten within reach. The braid stank of peppermint oil. Kagome sneezed.

"It's Ok Ito-kun. It's all Ok." Kagome reached out cautious of the loose soil she rested on and patted the ribboned end with her sound arm. The braid snaked around her wrist and gripped firmly. The aroma remained minty but with undertones of incense, bruised tomato leaf and bancha tea. Somehow each scent clearly independant of each other. Itoko was trembling slightly.

"I scared you didn't I. I'm sorry Ito-kun. We were all scared but it's ok. Lets get me back up to Rin now. I'm going to need your help though..."

Kagome kept her cut arm tucked against her body, holding the sleeve-bandage in place through contact. Her free hand gripped Itoko as firmly as he encircled her wrist and she cautioustly picked her way up the loose scree, several times nearly slipping again before reaching safety and Rin.

~o0o~

Rin had begun to shiver, standing aloof, and Kagome held out her uninjured arm to offer an embrace.

"It's Ok Rin-chan. It's all Ok." The child threw herself into Kagome's lap, burrowing her head into the and Kagome patted her back awkwardly, the loop of braided hair swinging heavily from her wrist like a silken manacle. "Look Rin - I'm going to need your help with my arm - it's not bad, it's just a bit bleedy..."

The adrenaline beginning to drain from her system Kagome's arm began to throb. She could feel herself pale as she glanced at the cut. It wasnt' at all bad, She'd seen far worse. It just, generally, hadn't happened to *her*. She cudgelled her brain for a bandage other than her other, filthy sleeve. Both she and Rin's clothing were NOT hygenic by any twist of the imagination. Her eyes fell on the bright ribbon on the end of Ito's tail. The only 'bandage' she had had. Then on the pristine white, dense body of the braid.

"Kagome-nee-san…" Rin's voice was distraught and Kagome looked down noting that the bleeding was still dripping from the sodden cloth that the child was now attempting to press onto the wound.  
"Hold the fabric tight for me a moment Rin-chan. It'll be OK. It just looks scary. You're helping stop the bleeding ." She turned her attention to the demon-braid,  
"I'm sorry Ito-kun. You're going to have to act as a bandage until I can find something better." Kagome grasped the braid by one end and pulled the hair tie off the other with her teeth, gingerly combing half the length out loose.

"You can let go now Rin chan". Kagome said as she closely wound the length of Ito-kun over the gash. The Youkai braid, realising Kagome was using it as a bandage, obligingly tightened on itself, snuggling flat into place.

"Gah! too tight!" The 'bandage' loosened gradually until Kagome relaxed, flexing her fingers. "That's much better! Thankyou both Rin chan, Ito-kun." Kagome leant back against the boulder with a sigh and then heaved herself to her feet, braced a moment against dizziness.

"We'd better get cleaned up Rin. Your hands and my arm are a mess."

Kagome noted and followed Rin's distracted gaze to her upper arm. Despite the amount of blood that had soaked into her shirt sleeve the white hairs were still pristine. As she watched the ribboned end of itouji brushed against a bloodied splash on her arm and the red seemed to shrivel then fluttered off in little dried flakes. Kagome could feel a faint, ever so faint hum of youki against her skin. Her wound now prickled as well at throbbing but not unpleasantly.

"I guess Ito stays clean the way Sesshoumaru seems to... But you and I better find a stream."

Rin let out a huge breath and hugged Kagome, finally convinced, it seemed, that the older girl really was alright. "Rin will go up to the hill and see if she can see one!" she chirped, trotting ahead, keeping well away from the edge of the path, even as the ground became wider again. Kagome followed her, slower, trying to convince Itoko, with little success, to release her uninjured wrist now that he was anchored to her other arm.  
The sudden lack of movement and sound from Rin drew Kagome's attention.

The young girl had frozen like a deer at the crest of the hill. A frightened little noise keened from her throat.

"Kagome-nee-san..."

The words were soft but the distress palpable. Kagome lurched forward to see what the child was staring at. Beyond the crest of the hill, in the small glade below, boulders were cracked and fragmented as though by a wrecking ball. Here and there scorches blackened the turf and the boulders. A brown and green shape was curled up in a lee between two big boulders. It was this that Rin stared.

"Janken-sama?" The girl's voice was all but inaudible.


End file.
